Next to what to wear to the Academy Awards, no decision is bigger than whom to bring. For Ryan Gosling, Charlize Theron, Justin Timberlake, and other celebrities, it wasn't a tough one.

In 1998, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made a bold but charming decision that started a celebrity trend. The two stars passed up bringing their respective girlfriends—Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow—and escorted their mothers down the red carpet. The move may have even brought them good luck that night—Damon and Affleck won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting.

Family Affair: Mothers at the Oscars

Family Affair: Mothers at the Oscars

Ryan Gosling

Having been raised and homeschooled by a single mom, Ryan Gosling didn't have to think about who he'd bring to the 2007 Academy Awards when he was nominated as Best Actor for Half Nelson. "I feel like I think like a woman because I grew up with my mother and my sister, so I've just been programmed to think like a girl," Gosling admitted last year. And he also had another reason for asking his mother, Donna, to attend the Oscars. "I was a little jerk, but she didn't care," Gosling confessed on Nightline. "She just kept doing the right thing by me, every single time. She deserves to go to a fancy party and a have bunch of fancy people tell her she did a good job."